Correa’s walkoff keeps Astros alive

SAN DIEGO » Carlos Correa homered with one out in the ninth inning and the Houston Astros beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 Thursday behind sensational pitching from five rookies to remain alive in the AL Championship Series.

Correa drove a fastball at the letters from Nick Anderson to straightaway center field, watched the ball for a few steps and then flung his bat. He was greeted at home by his ecstatic teammates. Correa is only 3 for 18 in the series, but two of the hits are homers.

Houston won a second straight elimination game thanks in large part to starter Luis Garcia and four fellow rookies, who combined to hold the Rays to two runs and four hits through 6.2 innings before manager Dusty Baker finally turned to a veteran, Josh James. Ryan Pressly, the seventh Astros pitcher, got the victory.

The Astros pulled to 3-2 and forced Game 6 on Friday, whichwill be a rematch between left-handers Blake Snell of Tampa Bay and Framber Valdez of Houston.

In the ALCS for a fourth straight year, the Astros are trying to join the 2004 Boston Red Sox as the only teams to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. The Red Sox beat the New York Yankees in the ALCS and went on to win their first World Series in 86 seasons.

Otherwise, big league clubs leading 3-0 in a bestof-seven postseason series are 37-1.

The Astros became the first teamto hit a leadoff and walkoff home run in a postseason game.

“We had a meeting after we lost that third game. We said, ‘Hey, we’re not ready to go home, so we’ve got to do something about it.’” Correa said. “But we’ve still got a longways to go. We’ve got to keep taking care of business.”

Baker said Correa called the walkoff. The two hugged during the celebration.

“Boy, that will go down as one of greatest games in history and hopefully go down as one of (the) greatest comebacks in history after two more games,” said Baker, 71, the first manager to take five different teams to the playoffs. “That’s as big a game as I’ve been involved in. That’s one of the reason’s that I came back.”

The Astros, who got into the playoffs with a 29-31 regular-season record, are trying to reach the World Series for the third time in four years. They are trying to get there in a year when they have been criticized for their role in a cheating scandal en route to the 2017 title that was uncovered last offseason.

Correa also hit a walkoff homer in Game 2 of the 2017 ALCS off Aroldis Chapman of the New York Yankees.

George Springer homered on opener John Curtiss’ first pitch and Michael Brantley broke a tie with a two-run single. Houston became the first teamwith a leadoff and walk-off home run in a postseason game.