No Curse This Time


George Springer made a three year old Sports Illustrated cover prediction come true. The Astros center fielder led off last night's game seven with a booming double and came around to score the first run of the night.

An inning later, with Houston up three, he delivered the knockout blow off Yu Darvish -- a bullet home run that extended the lead to 5-0. The game ended 5-1 Astros in the first seventh game of any post-season series ever played at Dodger Stadium. But the night belonged to Springer.

Talk about fulfilling destiny, the New Britain, Connecticut product was the player in that now-famous cover photo praising the Astros rebuild under GM Jeff Luhnow and owner Jim Crane. It's one thing to pick a winner at the beginning of a best of seven series. It's almost unworldly to pick a team (and its World Series MVP), three years in advance. Sometimes, you get a Hollywood ending in Hollywood. It just happened to center on the visiting team.

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