Yanquiel has brush with greatness, then emulates it

DENVER -- As Yanquiel Fernández stood in front of his locker following the Rockies’ 11-7 loss to the Cubs on Friday night at Coors Field, he was asked about his 2-for-5 performance at the plate, which included his second home run in as many days.

He said that preparation has been the key for him, the element that is paying off now that the former No. 3 prospect in the organization has been in the big leagues for a couple of months.

“When you prepare right, you’re going to get the results,” Fernández said through interpreter Edwin Perez. “ … And for me, I’m going to give it my all because I really want to stick here.”

If he keeps hitting the way he has in August, he’ll stick.

After launching his third career homer in the fourth inning -- a two-run drive to left-center field off Cubs starter and National League Rookie of the Year candidate Cade Horton -- and doubling off reliever Drew Pomeranz in the eighth, Fernández is batting .317 this month with four extra-base hits.

Three of those extra-base hits have come in the past two days, and that’s fitting, given that Fernández has had an extra spring in his step since stepping onto the same field as his baseball hero during the final series of the Rockies’ just-completed road trip.

“He looked into our dugout and kind of gave me the ‘hi’ gesture,” Fernández said. “And I did that back to him.”

Fernández was talking about Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, a fellow ballplayer from Cuba whom Fernández looked up to as a teenager. Alvarez made his big league debut just over a month before the Rockies signed Fernández in 2019.

And it just so happened that Fernández made his Major League debut against Alvarez’s Astros at Coors Field on July 2. But Alvarez was on the injured list with a fractured right hand, and the two never got to meet.

Alvarez’s first game back off the injured list was the series opener between the Rockies and Astros at Daikin park on Tuesday, but the meeting didn’t materialize during that series, either.

“It’s something that we wanted to do and it was planned,” Fernández said. “But when I was playing, he wasn’t playing. And when he was playing, I wasn’t playing.”

The fact that they weren’t playing in the same games didn’t stop each of them from homering in the series, though -- Alvarez went deep in the middle game and Fernández hit one out in the finale.

It was a bummer for Fernández that he wasn’t able to meet Alvarez. But just being there with him in the opposite dugout was inspiration enough.

“It gave me a lot of joy,” Fernández said. “We got to say hi to each other [from afar] and recognize each other. That’s a feeling I’m going to carry forever.”

Fernández hopes to one day be as recognizable to the broader baseball world as Alvarez is today. The Rockies rookie is just getting started and has a long way to go, but his 13 homers in 243 at-bats for Triple-A Albuquerque earlier this season demonstrated in a small sample why the Rockies think he has the potential to be a successful slugger in the Majors.

Time will tell whether Fernández has a similar trajectory as Alvarez, though that’s a tall order given what Alvarez has already accomplished in six seasons -- a Rookie of the Year Award, three All-Star selections and postseason heroics that netted him the 2021 American League Championship Series MVP Award.

But there are some striking similarities, even though one is a rookie and the other is an accomplished star. The two have similar batting stances and are built with a similar frame, though Alvarez is taller and has about 40 pounds on Fernández.

Not that it’s by design.

“I watched the [side-by-side] videos,” Fernández said with a smile. “And I appreciate the talent that he is. But he’s Yordan, and I’m Yanquiel. … We have those little similarities you’ll see in our game. But for me, I’ve just got to approach it my way.”

A major part of that approach is preparation. And while standing face to face with his hero has been elusive, you can be confident Fernández will be prepared when the day comes.

“For me to be able to have the chance to even say hi is awesome,” Fernández said. “But I really want that official meetup.”