Back stiffness takes Correa out of lineup
Astros manager A.J. Hinch rested Carlos Correa on Tuesday because “he’s been battling a little bit of back stiffness.”
Correa has four hits, including one extra-base hit, and seven strikeouts in his last 20 at-bats.
The shortstop’s recent performance, lingering back pain and demands on the upcoming schedule “added up to an easy day not to play him,” Hinch said.
The Astros are in a stretch of 23 games in 24 days. Hinch often has spoken about giving players rest as the All-Star break approaches.
In addition to Tuesday, Hinch wants to get Correa another day of rest. The manager also plans to rest Jose
Altuve and George Springer each for a game.
Hinch did not suggest that Correa’s back stiffness is related to the strained right side that Correa suffered on a swing in mid-June. That injury sidelined him for four games.
Hinch not fretting about Springer
Before Tuesday’s game, the Astros still felt some of a hangover from watching Randal Grichuk rob George Springer of a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth in Monday’s 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays.
The cruelty of baseball, as manager A.J. Hinch described it, plunged Springer deeper into a hitting malaise.
Springer, who began Tuesday in a 2-for-30 slump with six strikeouts in his previous eight games, was hitless in his first four at-bats before doubling in the eighth inning of the Astros’ 7-0 win.
“Right now he would take a little blooper, an error, anything positive to keep the inning alive at that point. But to have a home run taken away was a punch in the gut,” Hinch said. “Everybody knows what he’s gone through and the struggles he’s had the last couple of days, but I don’t think anyone doesn’t believe today could be the day he takes off. Whether it’s a dramatic home run or a simple single, he could spark us.”
Springer went through a similar 3-for-30 slump with 11 strikeouts during the American League Championship Series and the World Series last October.
Despite pressure to drop Springer down in the lineup, Hinch staunchly dismissed those suggestions. Springer stayed in the leadoff spot and wound up becoming the World Series MVP.
So Springer has been through this before, with even more pressure, which gives Hinch confidence that the starting right fielder will slug his way out of this.
“This is a number of at-bats that’s too small,” Hinch said. “If you know your players, you know when to have (a conversation), how much to have it, and even in what form to have it. Over the course of 700 plate appearances, these 30 are a tiny sample. We address things when we feel like we need to or if things are starting to weigh heavily on players. It depends on who the guy is, when you (as the manager) do that.”
Hinch said he has not sat down Springer for a talk.
“It’s a process of a long relationship that you know when to sprinkle the cayenne pepper, the salt, the sugar,” Hinch, who graduated from Stanford with a major in psychology, said of his approach. “We’ve been winning a lot of games despite not getting the results he wants. Imagine how this team will function when he gets going.”
Altuve maintains All-Star vote lead
Jose Altuve remains the top vote-getter for the July 17 All-Star Game in Washington, D.C.
In the third American League balloting update released Tuesday, Altuve had 2,460,967 votes, distancing himself from Mookie Betts in the overall race and widening his lead over Gleyber Torres in the AL competition at second base to 1.5 million votes.
It leaves Altuve in line to start at second base in a fourth consecutive Midsummer Classic, placing him alongside Rod Carew, Robinson Cano and Roberto Alomar as the only American League second basemen to win four straight fan votes. Shortstop Carlos Correa and first baseman Yuli Gurriel are in second place at their respective positions. Correa trails Manny Machado, and Gurriel — who leaped from third place to second place in this ballot update — is behind just Jose Abreu. George Springer is fourth among AL outfielders, trailing Betts, Mike Trout and Aaron
Judge .DH Evan Gattis and third baseman Alex Bregman are third at their positions.