SMITH

Leg injury puts huge damper on Springer’s night

The glove was thrown in pure frustration, even with a victory.

The buzz — Boston in Houston, Astros win, George Springer back — ended with A.J. Hinch sounding like he had just lost his team’s MVP.

Then Springer slowly walked from his locker toward a wall normally reserved postgame for starting pitchers. A few questions. No immediate answers. Nothing, really, to be said.

“It sucks, to be honest,” said Springer, who spent most of the interview looking away from cameras and reporters.

Through 52 games — the latest a 4-3 victory over the reigning champion Red Sox, thanks to Wade Miley’s arm and Jake Ma

risnick’s golden glove — Springer has been the Astros’ best overall player and Hinch’s club again looks like a World Series contender. But 2017 American League MVP Jose Altuve is out and now Springer is out again, forced to deal with a painful left hamstring injury on the night he was supposed to be re-cemented at the top of the Astros’ powerful lineup.

“It’s hard,” Springer said. “But I’ll make it through and I’ve just got to support the team the best way that I can.”

An injured-list stint is likely, Hinch said. Certainties: The Astros are a different team with Springer and his health is again in question after the strongest start of his career.

“I’m not looking forward to the diagnosis, to be honest with you,” Hinch said. “It doesn’t look very good. He never pulls himself out of a game like that. He was limping from the very beginning.”

It was a slow, holiday weekend fill-in for Minute Maid Park on Friday night. Fans — most in

Astros orange, some in Red Sox blue — kept gradually streaming down the aisles as a fast-working Miley kept striking out off-balance Boston hitters during the early innings.

At 7:03 p.m., the echoing announcement of Springer’s name was answered with ringing cheers. Five minutes later, Springer was honored again as he made his way toward right field with the early-evening sunlight slanting through windows and coloring the stands. Seven minutes after that, Springer received the largest early ovation of the night, with Boston lefthander Chris Sale towering on the mound and the Astros getting another shot at the team that blasted them out of the 2018 playoffs.

“Go Springer! Woo!” shouted one of the growing number of No. 4 believers.

Hustle play goes bad

Seven-plus innings later, Springer was off the field again. A foul ball dropped just out of reach of the sliding right fielder. Springer stayed down, slowly made his way to the outfield, then clearly wasn’t right and walked even slower toward his

dugout. Before entering, his tossed glove preceded his limping steps.

“The guy plays the game hard. He plays it the right way,” said Miley, who threw six innings of four-hit ball, striking out eight and again making his one-year, $4.5 million contract look affordable.

Spark plug of the Astros. Heart and soul of the Astros. Clubhouse DJ of the Astros. Jokester of the Astros.

Springer, 29, has been described many ways since George Springer Day on April 16, 2014, when the No. 11 overall selection of the 2011 draft made his big league debut. In May 2019, the best way to describe Springer is MVP of the Astros — when he’s healthy.

Houston’s professional baseball team went 2-3 after the sixth-year slugger left an eventual defeat to Boston last Sunday at Fenway Park with lower back tightness. Prior to that absence, Hinch’s club had been the hottest and best team in MLB.

With Springer on the mend, Hinch’s team split a four-game series against the rebuilding Chicago White Sox, dropped the last two contests and was shut

out 4-0 on Thursday.

Was it a coincidence that it was 2-0 Astros by the bottom of the third Friday, with Hinch’s club teeing off on a shaky Sale?

“Our best team has George Springer in the leadoff spot,” said Hinch, who joked pregame that Springer had been annoying the Astros while he was kept off the field.

Getting his cuts

Springer’s first at-bat ended up as a lined scorcher, twisting Jackie Bradley Jr. around and ending about 5 feet short of a home run. The Astros picked up on the immediate heat, consistently hitting Sale hard throughout the early innings and taking a two-run lead when Marisnick, a close friend of Springer’s, lifted a ball into the beginning of the left-field stands.

In the fourth inning, after another Boston error and another Astros run, Springer lifted a ball to left field. Josh Reddick crossed home. The crowd — packed to the top levels of the park as the sky turned dark blue — loudly applauded again.

“He's our energy,” Hinch said. “He’s a fear factor from the very beginning.”

Springer entered a buzzing evening in downtown Houston leading the American League in homers (17) and RBIs (42), while ranking second in OPS (1.050) and slugging percentage (.654). He was a legit AL MVP candidate almost one-third of the way through the season. It hadn’t been this good for Springer since 2017, when he clubbed a careerhigh 34 homers and batted a career-best .283. The Astros then pushed past Boston in the AL Division Series and won the World Series in seven magical games, and Springer was named the Fall Classic’s MVP.

Springer had been October-ish in 2019. He also has played in more than 140 games once in his career.

Like Carlos Correa, only injuries have held Springer back.

“I got no idea. I honestly don’t,” said Springer, when asked about being placed on the injured list. “We’ll find out (Saturday) and I’ll go from there.”

The Astros felt more electric Friday night because Springer was back. Now, the Astros need their MVP back again.