Hillcatts’ Alvarez homers when it counts

Winston-Salem’s Miguel Socolovich was down 3-1 to Pedro Alvarez when he tricked the Pirates’ top prospect, throwing an inside changeup on a traditional fastball count. Alvarez swung through it, grimaced and shook his head.

Round one to Socolovich.

Then Socolovich made the mistake of trying to fool Alvarez again. There’s no way he’d throw changeup again, would he? Alvarez was too smart to just sit on a fastball. He eyed the ball out of Socolovich’s glove and identified it. Changeup again.

Round two to Alvarez. In a rout.

The Lynchburg third baseman destroyed the 3-2 offering Thursday night, slamming it well over the right-field fence for a tiebreaking, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Hillcats a 9-6 victory and a 6-2 record on this season-opening eight-game homestand.

Winston-Salem right fielder Salvador Sanchez didn’t move once the ball was hit, knowing trying to chase the ball would be fruitless.

“I thought it would at least hit the wall, or something,” Alvarez said non-chalantly.

Said Lynchburg manager P.J. Forbes: “He got a little air under that one, huh?”

Alvarez, who had gone hitless in 18 straight at-bats after going 3-for-4 on opening night, showed signs of breaking the slump Wednesday night when he went 1-for-3 and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Thursday, the slump seemed a thing of the past. He went 2-for-4 and drove in six runs, one on a third-inning sacrifice fly, two more on a bases-loaded single in the fifth and three more in the ninth on the home run.

Alvarez didn’t do a lot to change his approach or routine during the first slump of his professional career, but he and Hillcats pitching coach Dave Howard did tinker with Alvarez’s mechanics.

“They raised him a little bit,” Forbes said. “He was a little wider than he was in spring training and kind of had a little fallback to him, as opposed to a more level plane. We just talked to him about taking what the pitchers give him. When he hits line drives to left field, then we knew he was doing that. You see that you don’t want to come in too often to him.”

The fact that Alvarez is batting .214 but has driven in a Carolina League-high 14 runs is a testament to Alvarez’s continued strong situational hitting. He has three sacrifice flies this season and has driven in runs twice on groundouts.

“I didn’t change anything up,” Alvarez said. “This is a tough month for baseball. Guys usually get going toward the end of the month, when it starts getting a little warmer. It’s probably one of the most mentally tough months of the year. A lot of times, you see guys do really well early, and it predicts the rest of the season. For the other guys, you can’t get discouraged. You go with your routine and trust yourself that you’re doing the right thing.”

The Hillcats were forced into the bottom of the ninth because of a shaky eighth from reliever Dustin Molleken, who had been strong in his first two outings but left too many pitches up in the zone Thursday. The Dash tagged Molleken for six hits and four runs in the eighth, tying the game at 6. Hillcats catcher Kris Watts led off the ninth with his second double of the game, prompting an appearance from the rarely-seen City Stadium Rally Cow.

Alex Presley struck out and Jose De Los Santos was intentionally walked. Jordy Mercer, whose three-run home run Wednesday gave Lynchburg the lead, struck out swinging, bringing Alvarez to the dish. His ability to come through in a clutch situation surely pleased the Pirates’ brass, which made him the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s draft.

“It’s very fun,” Alvarez said. “We go out to win every night. I wish we were 8-0, but 6-2 is still pretty dang good, especially the way we’ve been playing. We’ve had some come-from-behind wins, some big wins. We’ve been playing some good baseball.”