George Springer's shirt takes swing at Astros' forced red-eye

Friday, July 19, 2019

Springer's shirt hits out at MLB schedule-makers

Astros star George Springer's locker room shirt hits at MLB schedule-makers who made the team fly a red-eye flight back to Houston in between back-to-back game days.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- "Hey sorry I'm late. I didn't want to come."

George Springer's locker room attire said it all Friday afternoon just hours after arriving back in Houston on a red-eye from California.

The All-Star outfielder and pretty much the entire Houston Astros roster took umbrage with a scheduling quirk that forced them to play an evening game on the West Coast the day before a home game at Minute Maid Park.

Typically, Major League Baseball schedules a series-ending matinee game or an off day the day before the first game of a team's next series.

But on Thursday, the Astros closed their series with the Los Angeles Angels at 6 p.m. PT, which is technically counted as a day game under MLB criteria. This meant the team would have had to pack up, head to the airport, fly in the dead of night, and arrive in Houston at 5:15 a.m., which was 14 hours before the first pitch of Houston's game against the Texas Rangers.

So, Springer made sure to articulate the scheduling irregularity, taking swing at MLB.

"You just gotta play. It is what it is," Springer told reporters Friday. "We're not going to complain about it once the game starts...We gotta suck it up and see what happens."

The Astros' game Friday is key to widen their division lead. Entering the 99th game of the season, they are leading the AL West over Oakland by 5.5 games and by 10 games against the Rangers.