Mr. October
George Springer continues his playoff production with a tiebreaking homer.
George Springer has been the Astros’ posterman-child for hopes and dreams since he first donned Houston colors in April 2014, and now he’s given them one more chance to extend this 2020 season.
Springer’s two-run homer in the fifth inning, a 405-foot blast to the top level of the Western Metal Supply building overlooking Petco Park’s left field, accounted for the Astros’ margin of victory in a tautly played Game4, Houston’s first win of the American League Championship Series in San Diego.
It was his 18th career playoff homer, a teamrecord he shares with Jose Altuve, and ties him with Mickey Mantle, whose long balls all came in World Series games, and Reggie Jackson.
Springer has seven homers each in the Division Series and World Series, and his homer Wednesday night was his fourth in the Championship Series.
And now he has a chance toplay oncemore with Altuve, CarlosCorrea, Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel, with whom he has shared 54 postseason games, a record for any combination of five players, according to Elias Sports, during this golden era of Astros baseball.
“Just go out and play as hard as you possibly can, leave everything out there, don’t leave any doubt,” he said. “If there’s a play that you think you have to dive, dive. Just understand that your back is against the wall and you’ve got to grind and fight.
“To go out there and grind every single day and keep putting up good quality at bats, keep fighting every day, has been something special, and at the end of the day, whatever happens, happens.”
Springer’s home run came off a 98.7mph fastball from Rays starter Tyler Glasnow that he rocketed at 110.8 mph in the other direction.
He also led off the game with a base hit off Glasnow and a single in the seventh off Rays reliever Jose Alvarado. Three of the four balls he put in play had exit velocities in excess of 95 mph.
Springer’s at-bat in the sixth followed a base hit by catcher Martin Maldonado. He took two pitches north of the strike zone, swung through a Glasnow fastball and then connected on another high fastball to give the Astros a 4-2 lead.
His three-hit night came on the heels of a galling 0-for-4 performance in Game 3 in which the Astros repeatedly had hard contact that went for naught against the Rays’ acrobatic defense.
“Hard contact on the field is different than hard contact over the fence,” manager Dusty Baker said. “They can’t catch them over the fence. If we can keep having some long balls and get some short balls in between, we’ll be in good shape.”
Baker said it was the first time he had seen in person a homer on the upper level of the century-old Western Metal Supply building.
“I’ve heard about them, and I’ve seen them on ESPN,” he said. “That was a big game tonight.”
The Astros still face elimination entering Game 5 on Thursday afternoon, and Springer’s future in
Houston is uncertain as he approaches free agency following the season.
He’s day to day, as are the Astros, whose only chance to extend their season is to duplicate the historic comeback from three games down by the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.
Wednesday was not, obviously, the first time a Springer home run has helped pulled the Astros through in a postseason game.
Arguably the most dramatic came in Game 2 of the 2017World Series, when his two-run blast at Dodger Stadium in the 11th inning helped the Astros secure a 7-6 win that evened the series. In the same vein would be his seventh-inning blast to the train tracks at Minute Maid Park in the 13-12 elbow-biter that was Game 5.
The homer that Astros fans will hold closest to their heart, though, was the Game 7 homer against Yu Darvish that helped seal Houston’s first World Series championship.
With his two-run shot off Glasnow, he’ll have at least another chance to break his deadlock with Altuve for the team lead in career home runs and extend a stay in an Astros uniform that could end after this season.
Astros general manager James Click has said signing Springer will be an offseason priority but acknowledged that there will be competition for his services.
“We are going to put our best foot forward there, and hopefully that is something we can line up,” Click said. “But at the same time, George has earned the right to see what else is out there. We all hope that he comes home, but that is going to have to be a conversation on both sides.”
As he has on numerous occasions, Springer declined after the game to speculate on his future.
“I’m here now, I’m playing now, I play tomorrow again,” he said. “All that stuff is in the future, and I’m trying to stay in the present.”