Houston Astros: George Springer slams his way into the history books

Houston Astros outfielder George Springer has elected to make history with the feat he completed yesterday. What’s going on? Let’s take a look.

The Houston Astros were able to successfully take down the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 in their season opener yesterday on the road. This team looks like it’s ready to go to war for the remaining 161 games of the season and they’ll be at the top of the heap when the dust settles.

If you think that the Houston Astros are done making history, one has to definitely be delusional. The “Earn History” campaign wasn’t just a slogan for the 2017 season, this is going to be mantra for this era of Houston Astros baseball going forward, while the team immersing themselves in the conversation of being among the league’s elite. It’s certainly happening at the moment and incredibly proud of the start that they’ve had thus far.

But what feat did George Springer complete yesterday? One has to definitely admit that it’s a doozy but something that we’ve come to expect out him.

Well, I’m going to lay it on you. MLB savant Ryan Spaeder highlighted an important stat yesterday about indicating that Springer is the first one-hole hitter in baseball to homer on Opening Day in three consecutive seasons.

That’s an incredible feat to accomplish and one wonders if that’s what’s on Springer’s mind at the beginning of every season and it’s something that he wants to do. As he’s the glue that socially holds this team together, one could say he’s certainly the tone-setter. He’s the guy that gets the team into gear so they focus meticulously on the task at hand.

Ultimately the team got the job done and Springer finished the day with that being his only knock, going 1-for-5 with three ribbies and two strikeouts. Those three ribbies were all off the dinger

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that he sent to center field which included himself, Robinson Chirinos and Jake Marisnick.

This game had a different narrative than what I was expecting but it all turned out the way that it should’ve been with the Houston Astros ultimately prevailing.

Instead of Springer homering off his first at-bat, Austin Meadows popped one off Justin Verlander at the bottom of the first inning to which I’m positive that ticked off the future Hall of Famer. He ended up pitching a gem thereafter, striking out nine, fanning one and allowing just three hits in 7.0 innings of work. Meadows’ home run turned out to be the only one that J.V. gave up.

The bullpen worked the remaining two innings masterfully with Ryan Pressly and Roberto Osuna taking the bump respectively. Each combined for three strikeouts and allowed one hit (Pressly).

Despite the Houston Astros being 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, they were able to pull away successfully because of the lack of offense from the Rays. I don’t expect to see that tonight but the potential exists for this team to sweep the series at this rate.

The firepower in the lineup came from Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley and Yuli Gurriel who were all 2-for-4 and combined for two RBIs. Although it would’ve been nice to see more runs batted in, they didn’t necessarily need them to get past the Rays in the first game of the season.

Next. Astros: The players with the best shot at winning hardware. dark

I’m already ready for Game 2 tonight! The first pitch will commence at 6:10 p.m. CDT.

Let’s go Houston Astros!

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