George Springer is so good right now, he’s granting home-run wishes.
The hot-shot rookie homered Thursday night for the seventh time in seven games, leading the Astros to a 3-1 victory. And he was inspired by a young fan in a wheelchair who had asked him before the game to go yard.
“I actually had forgotten at that point that he had said, ‘Hit it to left,’ ” Springer said, according to the Houston Chronicle. “I do know he had said, ‘Hit a home run today,’ and I kind of thought about it after I hit it. And I was like, ‘Huh, he called it.’ I’ll give him all the credit for that one.”
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Success-starved fans in Houston are giving Springer the credit for a surprising six-game winning streak.
The 24-year-old Connecticut native has 10 round-trippers in May, only Mark McGwire (15, 1987) and Wally Berger (11, 1930) hit more home runs as a rookie in the month of May, and Houston still has two games left.
After a slow start, Springer is hitting a robust .333 with a .438 slugging percentage and 21 runs scored in his last 21 games. In that span, the Astros are 13-8, their best stretch of baseball since 2010, after losing at least 106 games the last three years.