season, with the Pirates he batted .191/.272/.289 in 235 at bats. 2012 Álvarez decided not to spend the 2011–12 offseason playing winter league ball. After the first nine games of the 2012 season, he struck out 13 times in his first 27 at-bats. In an interleague series against the Cleveland Indians, Álvarez hit two home runs in back-to-back games on June 16 and 17, making him only the second Pirates' player with multi-home run games in back-to-back games since 1918, with Ralph Kiner being the other player. Álvarez hit a go-ahead home run in the 19th inning against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 19, the longest game in the majors to that point in the season and tied for the longest in terms of time at 6 hours, 7 minutes. Álvarez hit a 469-ft home run, the longest hit by a Pittsburgh Pirate in the history of PNC Park at the time, in a two-homer game against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 28. For the season, he batted .244/.317/.467, was second in the National League with 180 strikeouts, and led all NL players with 27 errors at third base. 2013 Álvarez was selected to the National League All-Star team in 2013. He also participated in the Home Run Derby, where he hit six home runs. On September 13, he hit an inside-the-park home run. He finished the 2013 season with 36 home runs, tied with Paul Goldschmidt for most in the National League and third-most in the majors, and 100 RBI, which was tied for fifth-most in the NL. On October 9, 2013, he became the first player in baseball history to record an RBI in each of his first 6 postseason games. In Game 3 of the NLDS vs. the St. Louis Cardinals, Álvarez had the game-winning RBI in the 8th inning that gave the Pirates a 2-1 series lead. For the season, he batted .233/.296/.473, led the National League in strikeouts with 186, and led all NL third basemen with 27 errors. He also won the National League Silver Slugger Award for third basemen. 2014 The 2014 season saw Álvarez's defense struggle, with an MLB-leading 24 errors by August 3. As a result, Álvarez was removed from the everyday lineup and utility player Josh Harrison received the starting job at third base for an indefinite time period. This led to the Pirates' considering a move for