Sunday Night Baseball returns to Petco Park this week for a game between the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres beginning at 7 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. Houston has been red-hot since July 20. Of course they have.
On July 20, 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, the first human being to walk on the moon. Buzz Aldrin followed him 19 minutes later.
On July 20, 2026, the Astros defeated the Marlins 8-5. It was “one small step” for Joe Espada, as his Houston team began “one giant leap” in the American League.
The Astros swept the Marlins and then took a series against the White Sox in Chicago. After that, Houston swept a series in Anaheim and came home and swept the Rangers.
I’d say Houston’s Yordan Alvarez is in a season long hot streak. He leads the league in batting average (.329), on-base percentage (.442), slugging percentage (.650), OPS (1.083), OPS+ (202), wRC+ (194), runs (78), hits (136), fWAR (5.7), HR (35), and RBI (85).
With Aaron Judge sidelined since the end of May, Alvarez is the only logical choice for American League MVP.
Alvarez is not a one-year wonder. He’s been one of the best hitters in baseball since debuting with Houston in 2019.
Whenever I see Yordan step into the batter’s box, my 64-year-old eyes see a different 6-foot-4, 237-pound left-handed hitter that wears uniform number 44. I “see” Hall of Famer Willie McCovey. It’s not a stretch to compare him to the man they called “Stretch”.
McCovey won the Rookie of the Year award in 1959; Alvarez won the Rookie of the Year in 2019. Willie Mays was the Giants’ superstar that preceded McCovey by 8 years. Jose Altuve was the Astros’ superstar that preceded Alvarez by 8 years.
As of August 7, Alvarez’s .329 batting average is leading an American League that has just one other .300 qualified hitter (.300 — Tampa Bay’s Yandy Díaz). The league is batting just .244 this season.
Willie McCovey batted .320 in his MVP season of 1969, when the National League batting average was .250.
In that 1969 season, McCovey led the league in OBP (.453), slugging (.656), OPS (1.109), OPS+ (209), HR (45), RBI (126), and WAR (8.1). It was the first summer I paid attention to baseball. I was mesmerized by McCovey. Even if I didn’t see him play much, I “saw” his prowess by playing dice tabletop baseball games. He walked 121 times, something I knew from those tabletop games.
McCovey from 1959-1970, put up a slash line of .283/.387/.557 for an OPS of .944 and an OPS+ of 161.
Alvarez has a career slash line of .301/.397/.582 for an OPS of .979 and an OPS+ of 169.
They are a matched set if I ever saw one.
If Alvarez’ .979 career OPS opens your eyes, it should. Only one active player with 3,000+ PA has a higher OPS. That is Aaron Judge, with 1.022. Trailing Alvarez is Mike Trout (.970) and Shohei Ohtani (.955).
Yordan is the only player in 2026 with an OPS over 1.000. He belongs in a group with Judge and Ohtani and perhaps Soto as the best hitters in the game.
As Altuve approaches 2,500 career hits and the back end of his great career, the question will be if Alvarez can lift this entire team to the top of the American League.
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Astros-Padres connection: Remembering Ken Caminiti
And when I see the Astros and Padres in a game, I cannot help but recall the late Ken Caminiti, who was an All-Star for both franchises.
When NBC Sports was broadcasting the 1996 All-Star Game from Philadelphia, I was lucky enough to be in the booth with Bob Costas, Joe Morgan, and Bob Uecker. I’ve never seen a team so stacked as the 1996 National League squad, which won the game 6-0. The NL team featured no less than 10 future Hall of Famers.
The best player on that team, Barry Bonds, is not one of the 10 as he did not make the Hall of Fame.
The best player on that team that season—the 1996 NL MVP—also did not make the Hall of Fame. Ken Caminiti, who homered in the 6-0 NL victory, died in 2004 at the age of 41.
Thirty summers ago, Caminiti batted .326 with 40 HR and 130 RBI for the Padres. He slugged .621 and had an OPS of 1.028. He hit a home run in the All-Star Game. He hit three homers in three postseason games. He won a Gold Glove as well in 1996.
I can understand if you’re not that impressed with the slugging. There were 15 qualifying players with an OPS over 1.000 in 1996. Caminiti was only 11th-best, trailing players like Mark McGwire, Gary Sheffield, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Brady Anderson.
An OPS over 1.000 wasn’t big news in 1996.
Caminiti played for the Astros from 1987 to 1994, playing alongside teammates Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. Then he played four seasons with the Padres, alongside Tony Gwynn. He is a member of the Astros Hall of Fame and Padres Hall of Fame.
Caminiti has a place in baseball history, but not the place anyone wants to be remembered for. A year after his retirement, he admitted to using steroids during his 1996 MVP season and for years afterwards. He died of a cocaine and heroin drug overdose in October of 2004.
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The Padres’ Wait Continues
The Padres have played 58 seasons and have never won a World Series. They have reached the World Series twice, only to run into the 1998 Yankees (114-48) and the 1984 Tigers (104-58).
They had a very real chance to capture the championship in 2022, after the Pads eliminated the 101-win Mets in the Wild Card Series and the 111-win Dodgers team in the Division Series. In the NLCS against the Phillies, the Padres took an early 4-0 lead in Game 4 trying to even the series. A Juan Soto homer put the Padres back on top 6-4 in the top of the fifth. Sean Manaea got battered around in the bottom of the fifth, and the Phillies won the game 10-6. The next day, the Padres lost a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning as Bryce Harper hit a 2-run homer that vaulted Philly into the World Series against the Astros.
What would have happened if San Diego had defeated Philadelphia, and played Houston in the 2022 World Series? Could they have defeated the 106-win Houston team? It would have represented the greatest postseason run ever.
And it would have been the first World Series game ever hosted by Petco Park. The Padres have played nearly 1,800 games there since opening in 2004 at the stunning ballpark. It is a top-tier MLB stadium which is the central feature in the Gaslamp Quarter, the historic district that is a stone’s throw from the waterfront.
If you’re a baseball fan and haven’t been there, make a pilgrimage. You won’t be sorry.
Editors’ Note: Elliott Kalb – dubbed “Mr. Stats” decades ago by Marv Albert and Bob Costas – is the former Senior Editorial Director at MLB Network and a longtime contributor of research and information to NBC Sports’ telecasts.
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