Pitch 1: Fastball low, ball 1
Pitch 2: Changeup low, ball 2
Pitch 3: Fastball at the knees, home run
Saturday vs. Nick Hagadone
Pitch 1: Fastball up on outer half, home run
Sunday vs. Jeanmar Gomez
Pitch 1: Slider outside, ball 1
Pitch 2: Fastball down the middle, home run
Sunday vs. Esmil Rogers
Pitch 1: Slider inside, ball 1
Pitch 2: Fastball down and in, home run
Sunday vs. Esmil Rogers
Pitch 1: Fastball outside, double off wall
You can see the common occurrences here. All of these hits came on fastballs, and I'd say four of them came on pretty hittable pitches (the down and in fastball wasn't too bad of a pitch). Also, they were all either with Alvarez ahead in the count or on the first pitch. He was much more aggressive at swinging at the first hittable fastball he saw. He was able to lay off a couple of bad sliders and a fastball out of the strike zone. He got five hittable pitches and didn't miss any of them - which is what big leaguers are supposed to do.
Clint Hurdle talked about issues with Alvarez and outside pitches. The only evidence that that's improving here is the double in his last at-bat on Sunday. He got a fastball that he could do something with and went with it instead of trying to pull it. That was probably a result of confidence. He had hit four home runs in his last seven at-bats and probably thought he could hit any ball out of the park, so he just trusted himself and stroked the ball the other way. That's what he needs to do.
There aren't too many big league hitters that can make a pitcher pay when they make a good pitch, at least not consistently. Alvarez is going to have strikeouts and not hit for the best average when he faces pitchers that are executing their pitches, but he needs to take advantage of mistakes like he did this weekend. He really can't afford to watch a hittable fastball go for strike one against him, because that just opens up more holes in his swing. He should be taking a healthy cut at any hittable fastball, even if it's the first pitch every single time. That's when he's successful and he seemed to learn that a bit this weekend.