Astros rally, beat Sox in battle of division leaders

ASTROS 6, RED SOX 3

BOSTON — Carlos Correa hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and the Houston Astros won their sixth consecutive game, rallying past the Boston Red Sox 6-3 Friday night in a matchup of American League division leaders.

The Red Sox, with the best record in the majors, had won three in row.

Boston starter David Price had allowed just one hit and retired 14 in a row when he went into the seventh with a 2-0 lead. He left after Alex Bregman’s double and a walk and, after Ryan Brasier took over, the Astros scored three times. J.D. Martinez tied it with a single for his second RBI of the game.

Houston then scored three times in the eighth. Correa put the AL Central leaders ahead, a wild pitch by Joe Kelly (4-2) scored another run and Tyler White added an RBI single.

Ryan Pressly (2-1) got two outs and Roberto Osuna posted his 14th save. Astro starter Gerrit Cole went 6 innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs and striking out 8.

Price tied a season-high with 10 strikeouts over 61/3 innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 runs. Boston had won the previous nine games he had started.

Yuli Gurriel’s RBI double and Tony Kemp’s two-run double off Brasier tied it in the seventh.

Martinez put AL East-leading Boston in front 1-0 with a sacrifice fly that scored Mookie Betts.

Xander Bogaerts hit his 20th home run to open the Boston fourth. He had an opportunity to put up more runs in the fifth but struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning.

There was about a 13-minute delay between at-bats in the second inning when home plate umpire Brian O’Nora was escorted off the field after being hit in the face by a foul tip.