Fans are overlooking key detail of George Springer's 'dominance' of Dodgers in 2017

When the World Series kicks off on Friday, the Dodgers will find themselves face-to-face with a devil they know all too well. George Springer played the hero in Game 7 of the Blue Jays' ALCS against the Mariners, when he put Toronto ahead with a three-run homer that would eventually win them the game.

It gave Dodgers fans flashbacks to 2017, when Springer hit five home runs vs LA in the World Series, including a tie-breaking two-run blast in the top of the 11th of Game 2; a game-tying homer in a ridiculous, high-scoring Game 5; and finally — just to hammer the point home a little harder — a two-run shot in Game 7 to put the Astros up by five in a game when the Dodgers' offense just withered away and died. Springer, unsurprisingly, went on to be named World Series MVP.

Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are undoubtedly the Dodgers' two biggest threats in the World Series (with a couple of secret weapons further down the lineup), but anyone hyping up Springer because of his past dominance of the Dodgers are missing something: he was believed to be cheating throughout the entire 2017 season.

George Springer's past postseason feats vs Dodgers come with an asterisk

Astros players involved in the sign-stealing scandal flatly refused to admit that they used the trash can-banging system in the World Series, but Commissioner Rob Manfred's report directly refuted that claim and cited its continuous usage through the postseason while condemning manager AJ Hinch's failure to shut the operation down, despite his disapproval.

To be fair, Springer has been a scary postseason presence for quite some time and has emerged as such yet again with the Blue Jays, but any Toronto fans who are trying to use 2017 to dunk on the Dodgers are willfully omitting important context.

Besides, the Dodgers' rotation looks very different now than it did in 2017. Back then, LA had Clayton Kershaw at the tail end of his prime and Alex Wood pitching his heart out, but they also had 37-year-old Rich Hill and a shaky Yu Darvish — and the Astros had their trash cans. Now, the Dodgers have Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani, and Springer doesn't have his buddies relaying all the answers.

He shouldn't be underestimated by any means, but to count on him to do what he did in 2017? Keep dreaming, Toronto.