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Series tied 3-3
The Houston Astros are not out until they have lost 4 games in a series. That they have proven. Carlos Correa came up big again, George Springer drove in two runs, and the Astros beat the Tampa Bay Rays by a 7-4 score, rallying back from a 3-0 series deficit a few days ago, they have now forced a do or die game 7. Should the Astros win, they will become the second team to win a series after being down 3-0 in MLB history, joining the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who went on to win the world series.
The Rays got the scoring started in the second inning, when Willy Adames hit an RBI double, making it 1-0 Rays. It stayed like that until the 5th inning, when Springer hit a two run single, Jose Altuve hit an RBI double, and Correa hit an RBI single, making it a 4-1 Astros lead. In the 6th, Kyle Tucker made the lead 5-1 with a solo homer to center field. In the 7th, Tucker hit a sac fly, and Michael Brantley hit an RBI single to make it a 7-1 lead. In the bottom of the 7th, Manuel Margot hit a solo homer to left field to trim the deficit to 7-2. In the 8th, Margot hit a two run homer to make it 7-4, but that was all the Rays could muster.
Framber Valdez got the win for the Astros, throwing 6 dominant innings. Valdez allowed one run on 3 hits and 3 walks, striking out 9 Rays hitters. Ryan Pressly got the save with a scoreless 9th inning, his 3rd of the series. Andre Scrubb, Blake Taylor, and Cristian Javier also pitched for the Astros.
Correa addressed the Astros rally after the game, saying that "We’re relentless, when we said we didn’t want to go home, we really meant that. We want to keep playing baseball and we don’t want this to be the end of our season. We took care of these three games and now we’ve got to take care of one more. If we don’t win that game, it all means nothing. We have to go out there tomorrow and get that win. It would be great."
Astros manager Dusty Baker said that "We're not through writing history, and I'm hoping that we can have a happy ending to this historic season and historic year, it's not just this season. This is a heck of a year. This team has battled back, big time. You gotta love this team. Or some people hate this team; but I mean, you at least gotta respect this team. The way that they've worked. People have given me a lot of credit. I don't deserve any of it. They deserve it."
Blake Snell got the loss for the Rays, pitching into the 5th inning, but not recording any outs in the 5th. Snell allowed two runs on 3 hits and 4 walks, striking out 4 hitters. Diego Castillo was brought into the game in the 5th to finish the inning Snell started, allowing two additional runs. Shane McClanahan took over from there, throwing 1 2/3 innings, allowing 3 runs. Jose Alvarado, Aaron Loup, and John Curtiss pitched after that, with none allowing any runs.
Rays catcher Mike Zunino addressed the momentum shift from the Rays to the Astros, saying that "I think we take it as a one-game series now, we're 3-3 right now and someone's got to win tomorrow. We can say momentum or we can use anything we want, but at the end of the day, if the roles were switched, it would be a different narrative. We have to keep that in mind. We're still right in this thing."
Rays manager Kevin Cash said of the 3 straight losses that "They're frustrated. We're all frustrated, but I don't think they're tensing up. I think they recognize that we've got an opportunity for the fourth time to do something special, and have confidence that we can find ways to just really compete and get the bats going, score some runs for Charlie and find a way to win."
The series goes to game 7 on Saturday, where game two starters Lance McCullers Jr and Charlie Morton face off.
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