CHICAGO (AP) — Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez left Saturday's 3-0 win over the Chicago Cubs in the middle of an at-bat in the sixth inning because of a back spasm and will miss the series finale as the Astros try for a sweep.
Alvarez said through a translator he experienced tightness in right scapula, or shoulder blade, earlier in the day and “didn't give it time to go away.”
“I was going through my routine before going to hit,” Alvarez said. “I was lifting some weights and felt that the scapula felt a little tight and I couldn't really raise my right arm a whole lot.”
After fouling off a pitch from Colin Rea and falling behind 0-2 in the count in the sixth, Alvarez appeared to be in discomfort. Manager Joe Espada sent Zach Dezenzo to pinch hit, and Dezenzo struck out on the next pitch.
"Espada came up to me and took me out of the game just to give it some rest and not make it worse," Alvarez said. “So I just followed his direction.”
The three-time All-Star said Espada planned to give him Sunday off before the injury surfaced. Alvarez is batting .300 with 15 homers and 31 RBIs.
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Houston Astros' Christian Walker (8) celebrates with Yordan Alvarez (44) after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Chicago, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Authorities are bracing for the possibility that a damaged chemical tank in Southern California could leak or explode as an evacuation order continued into the Memorial Day weekend for 40,000 residents with no timeline on when they can return.
No injuries were reported after the pressurized tank overheated Thursday and began venting vapors at a company site in Garden Grove, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. Garden Grove is about 38 miles (61 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles. Several shelters remained open Saturday, including at three high schools.
Firefighters’ first hope is to find a way to cool off the chemical inside the tank so it won’t leak or explode. If that’s not possible, Purdue University engineering professor Andrew Whelton said it would be best if the tank sprang a leak so the chemical could be mostly contained. An explosion that could spread the chemical over a broad area and send shrapnel from the tank flying would be the worst-case scenario.
If the temperature inside the tank continues to increase, the pressure will continue to build as the methyl methacrylate converts from a liquid to a gas because officials said Saturday that the pressure relief valves on the tank were no longer working. Whelton said it’s unlikely that firefighters would consider creating a hole in the tank because of fears that could create a spark that might ignite the volatile and flammable gas.
Firefighters haven’t provided an update on the temperature of the chemical since the temperature gauge on the tank registered 90 degrees late Friday. Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey said Saturday morning that the temperature gauge read 77 degrees Friday morning, and it had been increasing about a degree per hour.
Valves on the tank are broken or “gummed up” and prevented crews from removing the chemical or relieving the pressure on the tank, Covey said.
Efforts to cool the tank appeared to be working Friday, but Covey backtracked, saying a reading conducted by drones actually showed the temperature on the outside of the tank, not the inside. Covey said emergency crews later were able to see the troubled tank’s temperature gauge in person.
“Unfortunately I do have to report that the temperature was 90 degrees,” Covey said Saturday.
Cooling the tank is important because the liquid chemical's flashpoint is 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Initially, residents in Garden Grove were ordered to leave. Evacuation orders were expanded Friday to some residents of five other Orange County cities — Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster. Some residents with pets said they planned to sleep in their cars.
Marco Solano, a 32-year-old resident, spent Friday night at his parents’ home. He said he was frustrated by the situation and was monitoring the news to see if he could go back to his home.
“I don’t think that they should have dangerous chemicals in a neighborhood area, especially that dangerous that they have to evacuate people,” Solano said. “But again, it's not up to me. I don’t make the laws. I don’t make the rules. We just have to do what is best I guess.”
Solano, who has multiple jobs, said he wasn’t feeling well Saturday, believing the stress of the chemical leak was exacerbating his anemia and ulcerative colitis.
“Right now I’m extremely tired. I have no energy. I’m super weak,” he said. “This has been affecting me quite a bit.”
He said he went to his apartment after work Friday to grab belongings and saw other residents who had not evacuated, and he was worried for them.
The damaged tank is located at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft. The tank holds between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons (22,700 and 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate, used to make plastic parts.
“Letting this thing just fail and blow up is simply unacceptable to us,” Covey said.
Exposure to methyl methacrylate can cause serious respiratory problems and even render someone unconscious. It can also cause neurological problems and irritate the skin, eyes and throat, according to fact sheets about the chemical.
But Whelton said the volume of the chemical in the tank is much smaller than in the disastrous 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that he studied when more than 115,000 gallons of vinyl chloride was released after officials blew open five tank cars and burned that chemical.
Orange County is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area where first responders are trained to respond to hazardous materials incidents, compared to the derailment in the small town near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border where the first responders were volunteer firefighters with less training and specialized equipment.
“Many of these are acute, fast-acting effects. But the longer somebody stays in contact with it, the more potential for significant damage that occurs,” Whelton said.
If an explosion releases the chemical into the air, Whelton said it will be crucial to conduct detailed air monitoring specifically for methyl methacrylate and not just conduct generic tests for volatile organic compounds as officials did in East Palestine. Those general tests often completed with handheld detectors may not be capable of detecting the chemical. Indoor tests of buildings and homes may also need to be done before residents return home.
If there is an explosion, the weather will be an important factor in determining where the plume of chemicals would go. Officials are developing maps to predict different scenarios about which areas would be most affected.
If the tank’s contents spill, containment barriers have been set up to prevent the chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean, Covey said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday declared a state of emergency in Orange County. The declaration will make state resources available to local agencies and allow the use of state-owned properties and fairgrounds as shelter for residents if necessary.
Garden Groves is next to Anaheim, home to Disneyland’s two theme parks, which were not under evacuation orders as the Memorial Day weekend got underway. Park officials said they are monitoring the chemical incident and supporting park employees impacted by the evacuations.
Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this story.
Tables and chairs are set up as people arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
People arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
People arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
Tina Tran, Diane Nguyen, and supervisor Janet Nguyen set up shade tents outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
People arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
Evacuees from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak move to another shelter after the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center closed for the night in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Evacuees from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak move to another shelter after the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center closed for the night in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An aerial view of evacuated streets as water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey speaks during a news conference at the Los Alamitos racetrack in Cypress, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026, about hazmat situation in Garden Grove, Calif. (Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP)
Angie Mallon, an evacuee from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak, exits the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center with her pet pigeon in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Firefighters work at the scene of a chemical tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Evacuees from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak move to another shelter after the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center closed for the night in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
