Henderson Alvarez | |
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Toronto Blue Jays ā No. 37 | |
Pitcher | |
Born: June 13, 1990 Valencia, Venezuela |
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Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
MLB debut | |
August 10, 2011 for the Toronto Blue Jays | |
Career statistics (through 2011 Season) |
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Win-loss record | 1-3 |
Earned run average | 3.53 |
Strikeouts | 40 |
Teams | |
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Henderson Javier Alvarez (born April 18, 1990) is a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays.
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Alvarez made his professional baseball debut in 2007 with the DSL Blue Jays 1, going 1-2 with a 5.61 ERA. He signed with the Blue Jays as an undrafted free agent on August 17, 2008,[1] and subsequently moved to the United States, where he pitched for the GCL Blue Jays, going 1-4 with a 5.63 ERA and a strikeout to walk ratio of 5.67. He was promoted to the Lansing Lugnuts of the Single-A Midwest League for the 2009 season, where he was an All-Star with a 9-6 win-loss record and a 3.47 ERA. He played 2010 with the High-A Dunedin Blue Jays, where he was a Florida State League All-Star and was selected to the All-Star Futures Game, going 8-7 with a 4.33 ERA. He started 2011 back in Dunedin, but was promoted after two bad starts to the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, where he was an Eastern League All-Star and was again selected to the Futures Game, going 8-4 with a 2.86 ERA
On August 9, 2011, Alvarez was called up to replace Wil Ledezma, who was outrighted to the Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas 51s. He took the rotation spot of Carlos Villanueva, and made his career debut on August 10 against the Oakland Athletics[2][3] pitching 5.2 innings and giving up 3 earned runs on 8 hits, with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk.[4]
On August 31, Alvarez recorded his first career win in a 13-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched 8 full innings, giving up just 3 hits, no walks and 5 strikeouts. He faced former Blue Jay starter Jo-Jo Reyes, who went only 2.2 innings and surrendered 8 hits and 7 earned runs in his first game against his former team. At 21 years and 135 days, Alvarez becomes the youngest Jays' pitcher to record a win since Kelvim Escobar in 1997, and the youngest starting pitcher to record the win for the Jays since Phil Huffman in 1979.[5]