So on the final Monday of the regular season, 71-year-old Dusty Baker — Houston Astros manager, baseball warhorse — was trying to explain why George Springer, his best player, was not in the lineup for a game later that evening.
The Astros were in Seattle to play the only team with a real chance to catch them over the seven days ahead. That his club was in this position at all — four games in front of the third-place, American League West Mariners with seven to play — had less to do with the capabilities of the Astros than the kindness of a 16-team postseason format.