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Are the Houston Astros fighting for their legacy this postseason?
SportsPulse: The Houston Astros were the embarrassment of the league heading into the season after the team’s cheating scandal was revealed. Our MLB reporters debate if they’re fighting for their legacies this postseason.
George Springer has been doing this long enough now that, while he stays numbingly the same, destroying baseballs deep into the postseason, the landscape around him has changed.
These 2020 Houston Astros are a long way from the first squad that stepped foot in the playoffs: Just three players remain from the wide-eyed squad that stepped into the Bronx and beat the Yankees in the 2015 wild-card game. So Springer is struck by what he sees from the new crew.
“These guys are a breath of fresh air,” Springer says, while name-checking Enoli Paredes and Blake Taylor, Andre Scrubb and Cristian Javier and Kyle Tucker. “They like to have fun every single day, they enjoy being there, they enjoy the whole experience of the big stadiums and all this.
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“It’s been an interesting dynamic for us, but this is our team, this is who we got, and this is what we’ll roll with.”
Certainly, the new guys have played no small role in these Astros’ rise from sign-stealing shame to World Series threat. After all, it was Framber Valdez, and not Dallas Keuchel or Justin Verlander, shackling the Oakland Athletics in Game 2 of the American League Division Series, following up on his crucial relief outing in the wild-card round at Minnesota.
But make no mistake: Despite all the star power since this run began, the Astros have always revolved around Springer.
Tuesday merely provided the latest example.
Springer slammed a pair of home runs in his latest Dodger Stadium power show, lifting Houston to a 5-2 victory over the A’s and moving them within a win of their fourth consecutive appearance in the AL Championship Series.
This is not a recent phenomenon. Springer now has 17 career postseason home runs, tied for seventh all-time and one behind Reggie Jackson and Mickey Mantle.
Sure, the larger playoff season in these modern times helps. Yet make no mistake: The phenomena that is Playoff George, as they call him in Houston, plays in any era.
“It is unreal, the stuff that he has been doing lately,” said Astros catcher Martin Maldonado, who homered and shepherded Valdez through a seven-inning, five-hit performance.
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Yet we are going on five years of this now. While Springer was among the 2017 Astros who will always carry a stain for their electronic sign-stealing scheme at Minute Maid Park, his World Series MVP honor came on the strength of three home runs at Dodger Stadium, including daggers in Games 2 and 7.
He entered Game 2 with a .915 OPS in 53 career postseason games – a full third of a season of dominance when it matters most.
“You come to expect it,” says Astros manager Dusty Baker, now managing his fifth franchise in the postseason. “This guy’s a tremendous ballplayer, a tremendous athlete, he’s not missing pitches he should hit. And he’s hitting them out.
“George loves to play. And the guys love to play beside him.”
Springer refused to echo Josh Reddick’s sentiment that this was a last dance of sorts for the Astros, what with those two and outfielder Michael Brantley free agents after the year. Springer struggled at the outset of the pandemic-shortened 60-game season, but heated up toward the end and ended up leading the Astros in Wins Above Replacement.
Though 31, his strong finish and this playoff display should push his market value closer to the nine-figure range come winter.
For now, though, Springer can’t lean hard enough on his playoff mantra of “staying in the moment” and “understanding you may never get back here again.” That’s hard to imagine; Springer seems made for October, a leadoff hitter with power and panache and this time, his postseason brilliance is uplifting teammates old and new.
“I got big protection,” said Maldonado, the Astros’ No. 9 hitter. “I got Georgie behind me.”
