*Photo from The Guardian*
Tampa Bay leads series 3-2
Somehow, Carlos Correa just knew. He just knew he would be the hero Houston needed. Correa hit a walkoff homer, George Springer stayed hot, and the Houston Astros topped the Tampa Bay Rays by a 4-3 score to trim the series deficit to 3-2, forcing a game 6 and keeping their season alive for at least another day.
Springer got the scoring started in the first inning, with a towering solo homer to left field, making it 1-0 Astros early on. In the 3rd inning, Brandon Lowe tied it with a solo homer, but Michael Brantley hit a two run single in the bottom of the 3rd to put Houston back in front by a 3-1 score. In the 5th, Randy Arozarena hit a solo homer to make it a 3-2 game. In the 8th, Ji-Man Choi hit a solo homer to right field, tying the game 3-3. In the 9th, Correa delivered a walk off solo homer to make it 4-3 Astros, forcing a game 6.
Ryan Pressly got the win for the Astros, throwing 1 1/3 innings at the end of the game, allowing just one hit. Rookie Luis Garcia was the opener, throwing two innings, allowing no runs on no hits and two walks, getting one strikeout. After that, the Astros seemingly emptied the bullpen, with Blake Taylor, Enoli Paredes, Andre Scrubb, Brooks Raley, and Josh James pitching in between Garcia and Pressly.
Pressly said after the game that "I mean, we’re pretty happy in there right now, but we’re not finished, we still got a lot of work to do. This team’s pretty resilient, and we show that day in and day out. You push our backs against a wall, we’re gonna fight you. This team was built with a bunch of fighters, and I’m happy to be a part of it."
Manager Dusty Baker described the circumstances of the impact Correa's homer had on the almost emptied Astros bullpen, saying that "Things couldn't have worked out any better at that time, we were down to Framber was warming up. We were down to Cy Sneed. I think that might have been it. And you have nightmares of going 15 innings or something. Boy, that was as big a game as I've ever been involved in. That's one of the reasons why I came back."
Nick Anderson got the loss for the Rays, throwing 1 1/3 innings at the end of the game, giving up the homer to Correa. John Curtiss served as the opener for the Rays, throwing 1 1/3 innings, allowing one run, the solo homer to Springer. After Curtiss was pulled, rookie Josh Fleming threw 3 innings in relief, allowing two runs on 3 hits and one walk, striking out one. Aaron Slegers then worked 2 2/3 innings, all scoreless.
Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier said of Houston taking some momentum that "We have a 3-2 lead and they have a little bit of momentum on their side, but at the same time, we know that if we come out and show up and handle our business tomorrow, then we should be in good shape. You go from feeling really good about our chances to knowing the game was over a short time after that, they played a little bit better than us today and it came down to one swing, and that was the difference-maker."
Kiermaier addressed the Rays offense, saying that "We've been streaky throughout the course of these playoffs, we've had some offensive outbursts in a few games and we've been quiet for a lot of them. We need to do a little bit better job of taking our walks, create runs in many different ways and use our speed and athleticism. But we have to get on base and put the pressure on them at a little bit better pace. We're going to try and do that tomorrow."
The series continues on Friday, where the Rays look to put away the Astros with game one starter Blake Snell getting the start. Astros game one starter Framber Valdez starts for Houston.
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