ATLANTA — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez left Friday night's game against the Atlanta Braves unexpectedly.
The team initially said Alvarez "left the game due to feeling ill on the field." The team said he was taken to an area hospital for further evaluation.
The Astros on Saturday tweeted that Alvarez was released from the hospital Friday night after all his tests came back normal. They said he is back at the ballpark and will continue to be evaluated.
Manager Dusty Baker said after the game that Alvarez suffered from shortness of breath exacerbated by Atlanta's in-game fireworks.
“He’s being analyzed by the doctors," Baker said. “They said all his vitals are good. He’s feeling normal but he still has to see our doctor. He was just, he had shortness of breath, and then when they shot the fireworks off, the smoke kind of made it worse."
Alvarez left the game under his own power in the fifth inning after Braves rookie Vaughn Grissom fouled a ball off his foot and needed to be looked at by a trainer.
Baker said no one knew Alvarez was in any distress. During the pause in the action, he just appeared in the dugout.
“We didn’t see anything," Baker said. “I just looked up in the dugout and he was there. After that we had to take it into emergency action to find out what’s wrong and then the emergency crew came over and took him to the hospital."
His replacement, Mauricio Dubon, left the field shortly after when he got shaken up while trying to catch a fly ball along the fence in center field. The Astros said he left the game with elbow discomfort and was replaced by Jake Meyers.
The Astros did not say if Alvarez is expected to miss any additional time.
“I’m glad we got him out when we did," Baker said. "Because I looked up and he was in the dugout and it was kind of a scary moment because it could be anything, but they said he’s doing fine at the moment."
