Houston Astros: The team’s stance on George Springer’s lower back tweak

Houston Astros center fielder George Springer had to exit Sunday’s game against the Red Sox with a back injury. How serious is it? Here’s the team’s stance.

The Houston Astros‘ winning streak has come to an end after proudly-winning a season-high 10 games in a row.  Streaks do come to an end so it’s okay that it has happened, I’m positive that this team will go on many more before the 2019 season is complete and they’ll have plenty of opportunities to make us all proud.

Framber Valdez — who was in to relieve Wade Miley — was in a tough situation as the Boston Red Sox had tied the game 3-3 and was pitted against Xander Bogaerts at the bottom of the 7th inning.  Mookie Betts was already in scoring position, when Bogaerts sent a smoking line drive to center field, allowing Betts the opportunity to score.

This proved to be the winning run in the game as the Houston Astros couldn’t conjure up enough offense from the rest of the team to get themselves back on top.

But the more important storyline aside from the streak being over is the status of George Springer‘s health.  He has been dealing with a lower back injury for the past few days and the pain became too great for him to continue playing today.  He had exit Sunday’s game with what he is categorizing as “lower back stiffness.”

Take a listen to what Springer had to say postgame via MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart:

Springer does indicate that he will be out of the lineup tomorrow for the first of a 10-game homestand that will start with the Chicago White Sox as their opponent.  He said that no tests are scheduled for tomorrow so it’s apparent that the team is going categorize his status as “day-to-day” with him hopefully not having to have a stint on the injured list.

George is the heart-and-soul of this Houston Astros lineup and it seemed to show as the Red Sox

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were able to quickly get back into game and the team just didn’t have enough to get back over the hump.

Although they wore Chris Sale out through 106 pitches in just 5.1 innings so although they ensured that his stay in the game was shorter, it was their bullpen that kept the Houston Astros at bay.  Marcus Walden, Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman combined for three strikeouts and two walks in 3.2 scoreless innings.

Springer’s performance this season is MVP-worthy and I’ve noticed a trend in regard to when he’s on the cusp of achieving such an honor in the regular season, some type of setback keeps him from getting it.  It’s early and he’ll have time to rebound but surely want to see an AL MVP dashed across his resume in the future.

He entered Sunday’s game leading the AL in home runs, OPS, ribbies and runs scored so there’s no question any extended time without him will pack quite a string for our lead-off hitter in the lineup.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best!

Springer has a .313 batting average while popping 17 home runs, 42 RBIs, coupled with a 1.050 OPS through 179 at-bats in 46 games this season.