TORONTO -- When George Springer walked off the field at Dodger Stadium in Game 3, grimacing and holding his right side, it looked like his season was over. Not so fast.
Springer was back in the lineup for Game 6 on Friday night in Toronto, where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays, 3-1, to force a Game 7 on Saturday. Springer was even pushing to pinch-run at points in Games 4 and 5 in L.A., but after down time on Thursday, the veteran has shown the Blue Jays enough.
“He’s ready to go,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said prior to the game. “He may look uncomfortable on a couple [swings], but I think we all have reassurance from all of the testing that he’ll be able to tolerate it.”
Schneider’s forecast tracked. Springer went 2-for-4 with a line-drive RBI single and another single that involved a little more good fortune, a dribbler down the first-base line, but he made it work and battled through the pain.
“He was good throughout. I thought his at-bat quality was normal,” Schneider said after the game. “First, the RBI single, he took a good swing on a first-pitch sinker, and then just battled his ass off for the hit there down the first-base line. I think if Georgie was -- even if he wasn't good, he wouldn't tell me. So everything in between innings and as the game went on, I tried to kind of stay away from him, too, but he was good.”
Given how the original injury looked, this has to be a surprise. Regardless of how tough Springer is, this “right side discomfort” looked a lot like an oblique strain, which is never just a day-to-day ordeal.
“It wasn’t great,” Schneider said. “He’s tough. I think that for any hitter, when you feel something there, you get a little worried.”
The Blue Jays’ lineup was stifled by Yoshinobu Yamamoto yet again, but this still looks like their A team, the group that can push them over the top in Game 7. The Blue Jays have needed to chase all the upside they can while facing the Dodgers, and Springer needs to be part of that.
With Springer back in the leadoff spot at DH for Game 6, Bo Bichette returned to the field at second base, a position he’s playing for the first time in his MLB career in this Series as he battles through his own injury, a left knee sprain that kept him out for seven weeks. Bichette is still hobbled, an ice pack strapped to that left knee after most games, but he’s giving this organization all he has.
Springer was brought to Toronto for these exact games, the 2017 World Series MVP with a reputation for performing on this game’s biggest stage. Whatever’s left of Springer, whether it be 50% or 75%, the Blue Jays will take it.