Jeremy Peña Is A Stud And Was Exactly What The Astros Needed All Season Long
What a year for this kid. Coming into the season all anyone wanted to talk about was how were the Astros going to replace Carlos Correa? Well I think they found their guy. Jeremy Peña was a third rounder from MAINE...not Tennessee, not UCLA, not Oregon State, MAINE. Not your traditional college baseball powerhouse by any means.
All Peña has done this year was be awesome for the Astros. On the year he hit .253, had an OBP of .289, slugged .426, hit 19 homers, 20 doubles, drove in 63, and finished with 135. He was known for being a smooth fielder, but even though he had 19 errors he still set the tone in the field and picked up right where Correa left off, hitting massive bombs vs the Yankees in the playoffs.
Last night the Yankees looked to have decent momentum up 3-0 before Peña came up with 2 on and laid into one. Tie game thanks to the rookie and as he got to third he hit us with the Jordan shrug. This kid has balls. This kid is for real. He's a stud in every aspect of the word. Just look at his playoff numbers, hitting .303, .324 OBP, 3 homers, 10 hits, and 5 RBIs in 7 games. No hit bigger than last night's tater that shut up the not full Yankee stadium and really crushed their spirits. Was his second homer of the series and helped earn him ALCS MVP.
On a team full of playoff veterans who had all been there before yet it was Peña who stepped up when it mattered most. He also had the homer in the 18th inning to beat the Mariners in the marathon game last week. The kid just has an itch for connecting when his team needs it the most. Some would say he has the clutch gene. Huge onions on this kid. The amount of pressure this kid was under all season, living in Carlos Correa's shadow, getting compared to him, having to hear "but how will the Astros replace Carlos?", safe to say they will be alright with this new kid. He's just a winner too, Daniel Kramer of MLB.com wrote that the Astros were 42-7 when Peña hit in the 2 spot, I think we know where Dusty needs to bat him vs the Phillies.
This is only the beginning for JP and it's safe to say he got off on the right foot. Doesn't look like any moment is too big for him. Going to be fun watching him for the next 15 years. Plus he will always be beloved by baseball fans for absolutely stunting on the Yankees in their ballpark. You love to see it. Crazy that it seems like the Astros let Correa walk and somehow ended up in better hands.