I guess Houston Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez couldn’t wait for the fireworks that the city of Houston had planned for the Fourth of July holiday and decided to start them early.

One day after teammate Jeremy Peña hit a walk-off home run to defeat the Los Angeles Angels, Alvarez followed up with a two-out 444-foot home run to right-center field to give the Astros a 7-6 win over the Kansas City Royals. The victory capped a day where the Astros overcame a five-run deficit to win their eighth consecutive game, which is currently the longest streak in the majors.

“It was definitely special,” said Alvarez. “My first walk-off in the Major Leagues, and obviously, being able to pull this one out is very special.”

Alvarez, who was named American League Player of the Month for June, had been struggling at the plate since his return from concussion protocol after his collision with teammate Jeremy Peña last Wednesday against the New York Mets. He was 1-for-10 before the walk-off home run to end the game.

Houston fell behind early in the game as pitcher Jake Odorizzi made his way back to the mound after being out since May 16th with a lower-body injury. He struggled with his command early, needing 36 pitches to get out of the first inning and surrendering two runs. The Royals would put three more runs on the board to push the lead to 5-0 before Odorizzi exited the game in the fourth inning, throwing 90 pitches and giving up nine hits.

“Just one of those days where everything wasn’t crisp when it came down to it,” Odorizzi said to reporters after the game. “Really the only pitch I had confidence in was my fastball. That’s why we threw a ton of them. A lot of swings, a lot of foul balls. It just all starts with direction and not opening up in my lower half. It takes away all my direction, power, velocity. And then, trying to compensate, it’s an uphill battle.”

The good thing for Odorizzi is that the Astros are battle-tested and have a lineup that keeps them in games until the final out. Houston chipped away at Kansas City’s lead after reliever Seth Martinez came into the game to stop the hemorrhaging. They scored three runs over the next four innings and cut the lead to 5-3 heading into the eighth inning before MJ Melendez hit his second solo home run of the day to put the Royals back up by three runs with two innings left.

The Astros would respond with a three-run eighth inning led by some clutch hitting from Kyle Tucker and Yuli Gurriel to tie the game at six a piece. Reliever Ryne Stanek would extend his scoreless inning streak to 21 as he shut down the Royals in the ninth inning, setting up the theatrics of what was to come in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Royals’ reliever Scott Barlow retired Jose Altuve and Jeremy Peña but struggled with Alvarez and allowed the pitch count to reach 3-1. Instead of sending him to first base and facing Alex Bregman, Barlow decided to throw a 3-1 slider to the league leader in slugging and OPS, and he sent it to right-center field to end the game.

“I knew when he fell behind in the count, I knew he was going to throw me a comfortable pitch there,” Alvarez said. “I just tried to focus and see a pitch up in the zone, but the ball came back into the middle of the plate, and I was able to hit it.”