We don’t devote the Say Hey, Baseball newsletter to “hey this guy had a bunch of hits” very often, but Astros’ outfielder George Springer had six hits in Monday’s game against the A’s, and six hits is a lot of hits for a series, never mind a single game.
George Springer had 6 hits. That’s good!
Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at a heck of a day for the Astros’ outfielder.
Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
They weren’t all singles, either, even if a half-dozen singles is a pretty great night, too. Springer picked up a double and also blasted a home run in a 16-2 rout by Houston. The 28-year-old right fielder is now up to .292/.351/.506, a pretty similar line to last summer’s career-best showing that helped lead the Astros to their first-ever World Series championship.
Springer is relatively underappreciated given he’s teammates with Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve, the latter of which won (deserved) American League MVP honors in 2017. Springer, though, hit the ground running in 2014 as a rookie, putting up a 126 OPS+ over 78 games, and as of Tuesday morning his career OPS+ is 132: that’s tied for 16th best in the majors, minimum 2,000 plate appearances, in that stretch.
The postseason did give Springer some much-needed recognition, at least: he was exceptional against the Red Sox in the American League Division Series, and then took home World Series Most Valuable Player honors for his five homers and 11 hits overall in the Fall Classic. He’s obviously not going to slug 1.000 like he did in the World Series, but he’s at least on his way to matching the best season he’s put up to date, and that will help keep the Astros dangerous defending champs.
- This week in Grant Land features Albert Pujols’ momentous occasion, and also Yangervis Solarte sliding/landing on his face heading into third.
- The Mets are likely to trade Matt Harvey, and the Giants are interested.
- They aren’t alone, as the Rangers are also imagining Harvey on their mound.
- The Rays want a new stadium but seem much more averse to figuring out how exactly it’s going to be paid for.
- Yu Darvish donated $10,000 to ALS research after Stephen Piscotty’s mother passed away.
- Darvish was in the news for an on-field reason as well, as he was placed on the 10-day disabled list.
- The Orioles can’t just sell off players and call it a rebuild. There have to be layers to this process, as the problems go deep.
- Viva El Birdos wonders just how good the Cardinals are.
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a home run off of a tee after calling his shot. He also hit an in-game dinger off of a hotel.
- Gorkys Hernandez made an incredible, home-run-robbing catch ... until he didn’t.
- Here is a time lapse graphic of every Ichiro hit in MLB. You’re welcome.
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