The Houston Astros’ clubhouse is a lot brighter this year. Literally.<\/p>\n
Two rectangular blinding lights sit in lockers at different corners of the room: one in the locker of Christian V\u00e1zquez<\/a> on the right side of the room and the other facing the entrance from the back of the clubhouse in the locker next to Christian Walker’s.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We have a doctor in Boston that teach us that in the clubhouse, we don’t see the sun, so they wake you up,” V\u00e1zquez told Chron. “And when they train me here, I bring it here too. Nobody knows about the lights, and I think it’s awesome because you don’t see the sun in here, you get sleepy. So now Yordan (Alvarez), Carlos (Correa), (Cam) Smith have the lights.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Light therapy is used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression that happens during the fall and winter months in colder climates when people don’t see the sun for days. Obviously, that’s not the case in Houston, but the players spend a lot of time in the clubhouse or playing under a roof at night, so they often don’t get exposure to the sun’s UV rays. And so far, it seems like the lights are awakening the\u00a0Astros’ bats. Their 6-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday completed a three-game sweep where they’ve averaged 8.6 runs per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n “All I know is like we’re in a dome all day, so we need to see some type of light to get our system woke up or whatever,” Astros right fielder Cam Smith told Chron. “But you know, if it’s placebo, it works.”\u00a0<\/p>\n But it’s not a placebo.\u00a0<\/p>\n