San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Springer blasts past former team
TORONTO — If the Astros required another reminder of what they miss, George Springer supplied it. He started a sleepy Saturday matinee with a mammoth home run, the sort Houston fell in love with for his five seasons as its leadoff hitter.
Springer can bury an opponent before they even settle in. The Astros cherished the luxury for so long. Saturday, they saw the side never experienced before. Springer struck two home runs in the first three frames against his former team, affording the Blue Jays all they needed in a 2-1 win at Rogers Centre.
Springer’s display ruined an otherwise commendable start from Luis Garcia, a man given no support by Houston’s sporadic offense. A day after amassing 14 hits and scoring 11 runs, the Astros mustered only Yordan Alvarez’s gargantuan solo home run in the fourth.
Alvarez dented a second-deck restaurant above the batter’s eye in dead center field during the fourth. The 447-foot blast brought Houston to within one run. It crawled no close.
The Astros had a baserunner against Toronto starter José Berríos in every frame but the first. One scored. Houston stranded nine runners while Berríos worked, prolonging a putrid early-season trend. The lineup entered Saturday’s game hitting .215 with runners on base. Only four offenses had a lower batting average.
Nothing on Saturday augmented it. The Astros finished 3for-15 with runners aboard and stranded 11 baserunners. Houston found ample ways to waste threats. A perplexing bunt during the fourth inning stands out, but cannot be blamed by itself. The logic made little sense, but Houston’s malaise warranted some drastic action.
Jeremy Peña tried to provide it. After Alvarez homered, Yuli Gurriel worked a walk and Kyle Tucker struck a single.
Two pitches later, Peña laid down a bunt. Berríos fielded it a few feet in front of the mound.
Peña bunted it so poorly the pitcher had time to doubleclutch before throwing Gurriel out at third base. The sacrifice did not work and only brought two struggling hitters to bat.
Backup catcher Jason Castro is mired in a miserable start to his season. Jose Siri only recently broke out of one himself. The two men made out to strand both baserunners. A frame later,
Chas McCormick and Niko Goodrum started the fifth with singles. Alex Bregman, Alvarez and Gurriel all went down to leave them there, offering Garcia no support.
Garcia’s cutter carves up righthanded batters. It is his best pitch, the one with which he can generate swing and miss or weak contact. Hitters entered Saturday with one single
against the pitch all season. Last season, they had a .176 batting average when facing it.
In a three-year major league career spanning 1831⁄3 innings, Garcia had allowed only five home runs against his cutter. Springer struck two during the first three frames on Saturday. The first-inning bomb came on a poorly-executed pitch. Garcia got the cutter down in the strike zone during the third, but Springer showed strength
Springer and two-hole hitter Bo Bichette totalled four of the five hits against Garcia. The righthander held the rest of Toronto’s order in check, grinding through six stellar innings against an intimidating lineup.
Garcia struck out five and surrendered just the two solo home runs to Springer.
Home-plate umpire Nic Lentz aided both Garcia and Berríos with a wide strike zone, drawing the ire of both benches throughout the game.
Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo argued with the umpire throughout the first inning. Lentz ejected him after the fifth, when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looked at a borderline third strike to end the frame.
Guerrero threw his helmet and bat in frustration, but Lentz allowed him to remain in the game.