Houston Astor’s George Springer marks his fourth multi-home run game this season. AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith
Another week, another milestone for the Houston Astros’ George Springer.
With his three home runs and four RBI, the ’Stros cruised to a 13-5 win over the Angels on Sunday. This marks Springer’s fourth multi-home run game this season, but the first three-home run game of his career. It couldn’t have come at a better time, too; the Astros clinched the AL West with their victory, complete with a champagne celebration at their home, Minute Maid Park.
With his big day, Springer increased his home run and RBI totals to 38 and 94, respectively. These are both career highs with a week left to go in the season. The former first-round draft choice appears poised to finish the regular season with personal records in other statistics such as batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS.
Hitting leadoff for Houston, Springer has been keeping opposing pitching nervous from the jump all season long. The UConn alum hopes to ride his hot season into the playoffs, where the Astros have home field advantage for the Divisional Series. He is a career .302 hitter in the playoffs in 147 plate appearances.
In other baseball news, relief pitcher Matt Barnes has had a quietly dominant week for the Red Sox. Since last Thursday, he has posted strong numbers: eight strikeouts, four walks and one hit allowed over 3.1 innings pitched. He also hasn’t allowed an earned run in that span.
In a season now almost meaningless for the Sox (eliminated from playoff contention this past week), Barnes has still been able to put up strong stats against opponents like the Giants and the wild card hunting Rays.
While his season has been filled with ups and downs on one of the worst bullpens in baseball (29 blown saves), Barnes seems to have found his stride and hopes to carry this momentum into next season, where he appears to be a key part of the 2020 Red Sox’s bullpen.
In the NBA world, former UConn star Jalen Adams was officially announced as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans’ 20-man roster for training camp. While Adams signed his contract after being undrafted in June, the paperwork is officially completed as Adams hopes to compete for a final roster spot on a team loaded with young talent.
Adams has impressed early on, as he accumulated stats like an average of 6.6 points, 3.2 assists, and 2.4 rebounds per game in the Summer League. He played roughly 19 minutes per game over five games for the Pelicans.
Switching over to men’s soccer, Andre Blake and the Philadelphia Union lost to the New York Red Bulls on Sunday, 2-0. Blake, the starting goalkeeper, allowed two goals while making five saves.
Blake has been very productive this year, with 52 saves on the season so far, earning him an MLS All-Star bid earlier this year. The team sits at 15-9-7 and is in position to be the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Jonathan Synott is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at jonathan.synott@uconn.edu